The odd house
along the main road to Liverpool
had fluttering bunting pinned to the doors
and hanging from the outside
of the recently varnished windows, hand drawn
pictures of heroes who lifted
the European Cup
in their name, and Shankly legend
and Paisley lore, of Kennedy penalty,
of Hughes, Crazy Horse
and a small child kicking a scuffed
second hand football against a wall
in Anfield, Toxteth, Bootle and Cairo,
dreaming of putting on the red shirt,
someday, to hear their name resonate
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
In The Clouds, so much goes on that we cannot comprehend fully the way it affects our lives, this once strange realm in which poets pondered and the visionary dreamed, where we believed that giants slept and snored, and in which flights of fancy are the now everyday as millions cross the clouds in search of adventure, home and freedom.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is the song of the eternal optimist, and in this world that we seek solace in, sometimes it is the only words of comfort that we dare believe in, that we ever think will keep us warm. When Hell threatens to freeze over, when the Sun in all its glory, dims, hides in the shadows and blames the path of the moon for the eclipse of rational thinking available; Love Will Keep Us Together is the cry of old, of hope and of the possible future to which we cling to, that when all else fails, love is the measure in which our souls are tested.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Josh Brolin, Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, Brianna Hildebrand, Brad Pitt, Bill Skarsgård, Matt Damon, T.J.Miller, Terry Crews, Rob Delaney, Alan Tudyk, Julian Dennison, Lewis Tan, Jack Kesy, Eddie Marsan, Shioli Kutsuna, Hayley Sales, Stefan Kapicic, Karan Soni, Sala Baker, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan.
In the land of the sequel, the audience is normally attuned to the fact that by and large the film will be below par, sometimes disastrously with a plot that was based on profit potential, sometimes just out of plain high expectation, but the result will be the same, that like most films, the sequel is never in the same class as the original.
Her today,
it is the song you sing
when the times get rough,
the call you make
when the nights become lonely,
Her today,
laying on satin sheets
in a crumbled down room
and as old as time
wall paper peeling in hard to reach corners,
Her today,
is the image in your mind,
silk black stockings
or American tan, like some
1950s desperate showgirl,
Her today
you have never left her behind,
she just sleeps in that thin space
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To take the entertainment and skill of the cabaret lounge and place under the intense microscope of the unsuspecting eyes of Liverpool Cavern Club patrons may seem an unlikely success, but for musician Dawn Oberg, the combination of upbeat performance and hard-hitting lyrics is one that anybody finding themselves in the company of the artist, could not fail to like, admire and wish she was in Britain more often than her native home in the United States of America.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Investigation is half the enjoyment of witnessing an abundance of bands when the Independent Pop Overthrow comes to one of its host cities. The research, the crossing off of a band, the tick box and the doodled happy face when you come across a group or artist who floats your boat and scratches the itch of the years of painted over smiles and thoughtful applause.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Manjinder Virk, Callum Blake, Simon Callow, Colin Michael Carmichael, Robert Daws, James Fleet, Rosie Holden, Matthew Jacobs Morgan, Caroline Langrishe, Cyril Nri, Maggie O’ Neill, Joseph Prowen, Flora Spencer-Longhurst.
You can be scarred for life by the sword as it maims you, cuts into your skin and draws blood, but it is death by the bow that leaves you cold and frightened, the artist’s revenge and thoughts of cold bloodied murder always more palpable as the strings are drawn and the fire in the cold stare is highlighted across the bridge and the arm, drawing back till something snaps and the music becomes a requiem.
In rainstorms, you look for the lightning
in the distance and hope
that the growl of dark clouds
keeps far and away from your door,
yet you know that for all the sunshine
that may come tomorrow, or the day after
that, that cloud will move on, seemingly spent;
instead it just finds more relish
to pour down elsewhere,
perhaps drowning some
in the process.
Ian D. Hall 2018
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Alison Green at The Cavern Club, May 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Some musicians and artist exemplify their surrounding so much that it is impossible to think of them in any other way, that the Cavern, the older, the more insistent part of Liverpool’s heritage in musical terms, should see the Independent Pop Overthrow return with such spectacular vision as to have within its ranks for a fifth straight year, Canterbury’s own but Liverpool loved, Alison Green.